Change in U.S. Policy Toward South Korea in the Early 1960s

The United States changed its policy toward South Korea in 1961. Policies focusing on stabilization programs, military support, and foreign private capital were replaced by policies stressing economic development, social reforms, and long-range U.S. public assistance. The establishment of the junta in South Korea resulted in a complementary condition in which the United States could change its policy. This change was stimulated by political, economic, and personnel changes in South Korea in the late 1950s and the transition in the overall foreign policy of the Kennedy administration. The appearance of new ideas in both the South Korean and the American governments in the early 1960s played decisive roles.